Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really, you think that the video succeeds on that level? I think there's about 10s worth of content there.
Don't pretend you're the world.
Nonsense. You don't need you be the world, you just need to understand it.
Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
381–390 of 697 posts
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#382They have a video on the main page. The video is a minute long. They have asked for my attention for a minute. In that minute, they have not told me anything about what the Surface can do for me, and why I should care about it. I'm absolutely baffled by that. Yes, I might know what it is, and have some idea about what it can do, but if this was a television commercial, I'd bet money that such a campaign would be a qu…
Remember the original iPod commercials? They were completely devoid of "meaningful content"; it was just people dancing. Consumers went apeshit for it.
That was not the "original iPod commercial" that was an early iTunes-era iPod commercial. The original iPod pitch was "1000 songs in your pocket" which was great copy and got right to the point.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#383Does anyone know if Windows 8 (or whatever is powering the Pro version) is resolution independent? Or will developers have to compile a version for the Surface Pro, and a different version for the x86 desktop market?
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pen+touch+type seems like a great idea. It is something no other manufacturer has tried to do. I think the devil will be in the details, but this sure is interesting, because Apple's strategy is "people should buy multiple devices-- iPad, Macbook Air, Mac Pro...". MSFT wants one device that is a lot more versatile.
Pen+touch+type seems like a great idea. It is something no other manufacturer has tried to do. Apple Newton MessagePad, 1993. It had a stylus, handwriting recognition, you could use it with just your fingertips, and you could connect an external keyboard. http://www.flickr.com/photos/atow/4314242537/ That was almost twenty years a go. Newton was a very expensive experiment for Apple, and they have learned the hard wa…
Yeah, so what? If you read HCI papers from the 90s (it's what I do for a job-- I'm a PhD student in HCI), you'll see that a lot of very respected researchers claimed that speech technology is not useful (their claim is well-founded: it is slow, environmental noise is unavoidable, what to say is often not obvious, and there's the Midas problem).
But, here we are, with people praising Siri. It's how technology works-- every input modality is useful for some tasks, and at some level of maturity. Dismissing technological potential based purely on past technology is short-sighted. [For examples of how Pen+touch is a good idea see http://billbuxton.com/Pen+TouchUIST.pdf. Add type, and it could be powerful indeed]
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vaporware. They're trying to pre-empt anyone for capturing the tablet/mobile space by rushing their design concept out before anyone else has a chance to produce product, and force everyone to ape Microsoft's claimed, rather than actual, featureset. Oh, wait, that was NT, 1992. Scratch all of that.
Just "who" is it you think they are trying to rush? Certainly not Apple, and aside from the Fire/Nook Tablet is their an Android tablet that hasn't been dead on arrival (800 dollar Xoom anyone)? If this was vaporware they were pushing in an attempt to get ahead of the market instead of playing catch up they would have put this out in 2010 instead of halfway through 2012. If they can price the thing realistically (aga…
is their an Android tablet that hasn't been dead on arrival
There have been millions of Android tablets sold. In most product spaces that is an incredible success, and it's only relative to the astonishing success of the iPad could that be called "dead on arrival".
And that was the rather terrible phase one. The incomplete Honeycomb, the rather terrible Tegra 2, and toothing pain hardware.
I've noticed my online electronic store absolutely pushing the next wave - the A700, 7" tablets of all sorts, etc. All of them finally featuring price advantages over the iPad.'
Anyone who buys the Android failed on tablets thing has been misled. It has been an ugly adventure but they're actually doing okay, and have set a pretty good foundation for success going forward.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't worry, it's made by Microsoft, so it will suck.
Xbox is a good product.
The Xbox 360 was one of the worst user interfaces I've used in a long time.
They forced me to register an account and enter information in about 20 text fields using my xbox controller before I could do anything with the device. After being pissed at that, it started spinning up its fans and sounded like a small airport.
That was the point when I first thought about returning it to the store (which I later did). I know that it has been a while since they released it, but the missing attention to detail was always one of Microsofts biggest Problems. They usually seemed to strive for "good enough" rather then perfection. I really hope they are able to change that with their new line of products.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#387I just see how ad designers for that picture/video prepare their creatives on their macs and fill dirty for selling their souls to M$. That also brought me another memory: Zune. So much hype and so poor results. Microsoft should stick with desktop/business software and keep milking it. MS is not capable of doing anything else profitably anymore.
Keep in mind they've sold a lot of Xbox 360s and Kinects. Not sure how much profit they've made, but it shows MS can make commercially successful, desirable hardware.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#388I just see how ad designers for that picture/video prepare their creatives on their macs and fill dirty for selling their souls to M$. That also brought me another memory: Zune. So much hype and so poor results. Microsoft should stick with desktop/business software and keep milking it. MS is not capable of doing anything else profitably anymore.
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Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're making a bunch of key mistakes there: a) Only the ARM version is running Windows RT. The Intel version I wrote about is using "Windows 8 Pro", which contains the regular Windows desktop. b) A BT keyboard for the iPad is something you need to select separately, and schlepp around inconveniently. A cover goes together with the device. Stuff like this matters. As for whether it's doing anything new, dunno. The th…
> schlepp around inconveniently This is the opposite of inconvenient: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-57415771-243/logitechs-... This, plus a good SSH client and the Google apps app, makes a laptop redundant, and is a very nice cover and perfect airplane tray stand to boot (thanks to offsetting the screen away from the seatback in front of you).
You're getting pretty close to a laptop once you add the keyboard to the mix, and the killer product you then start competing with is the 11" MBA.
I'm voting MBA without hesitation, but everyone has different needs.
Re: Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet
#390Earlier quoted context omitted.
ClearType has been around for a very long time. It's basically subpixel-rendering that improves the visual quality of text (sort of effectively tripling the LCD resolution). Last I checked, Microsoft had patented the hell out of it (and I last checked a few years ago). I think they're right about touting a technology that effectively triples text-display resolution. And for your other observation about the whole ench…
I don't know how they're going to make subpixel anti-aliasing work if you can rotate the display. I wouldn't be surprised if they just are re-using the ClearType name and it's not actually sub-pixel anti-aliased, just regular anti-aliased (like the iPad).
Good point, since most pixels are taller than wide (it'd suck even more if they can't sub-pixel render in portrait mode, as it seems the more natural reading position).